


The Observation of Lady Patience in Her Natural Environment

by electropeach



Category: Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb, Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29439936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electropeach/pseuds/electropeach
Summary: “Well, I thought of you immediately when I heard it, Lacey. You said you were looking for work, and I can think of no one better to keep an eye on that summer storm of a girl than you. My lady Constance was very fond of her, you know.”Lacey accepts a job proposal from her teacher, weaponsmaster Hod (and the rest, as they say, is history).
Relationships: Patience Farseer/Lacey (Robin Hobb)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	The Observation of Lady Patience in Her Natural Environment

**Author's Note:**

> Fennel asked for Patience/Lacey and first meetings when I asked for femslash February prompts, so here we go!
> 
> On a different note: Hod came to Buck with Queen Constance, Queen Constance took baby Patience under her wing, and Lacey was Hod's star student - you'll never convince me that Hod didn't set Lacey to protect Patience as a tribute to her queen ok!

_“Lacey, I have a job for you.”_

“Oh, really! Do stop that, I am not going to eat you!”

The bright voice stopped Lacey on her tracks before she rounded the corner of the garden path. She heard splashing, muttering, and a few words that would not have been out of place in the Keep’s guardroom.

“Oh! You slimy little ingrate! Look at what you made me do, and me trying to help you!”

Lacey sped up, alarmed that someone was accosting the young lady, causing her to use such language. She rounded the corner of the hedgerow with her hands already going to her belt for her knife – not exactly a weapon, but better than nothing – and stopped dead at the sight that greeted her.

_“You have heard that the Lady Patience is coming to Buckkeep, yes? Her parents are coming with her, but as I understand it, it is their intention to let Lady Patience stay. She’s fifteen and of an age to be properly introduced to the court.”_

There was a little slip of a girl wading in the garden's ornamental pool, her yellow summer skirts tied up in knots around her knees, her ruffled sleeves pushed back to her elbows, bent at the waist and muttering under her breath. As Lacey stared, she took slow, measured steps, her eyes fixed on something in the shallow water, her hands hovering over the surface with the fingers outstretched, and then suddenly lunged forward, plunging her hands into the water and crowing triumphantly.

“Got you!” she cried, dancing up and down a little with her small, dripping hands cupped together, something caught between them. “Got you, you slimy little creature, so there! Oh, stop struggling!” She was frowning again, glaring at her hands, when she suddenly noticed Lacey.

_“Have you met her? I don’t suppose you have. She is… an unusual lady, one might say. Headstrong and harebrained, some say. But sweet and kind as any, Lacey. Her parents are looking for a maid for her, someone to look after her when they leave her here. Oh, she can be troublesome, but there are worse fates than being a maid to an eccentric but kind lady, kid.”_

“You there! Hello!” Lady Patience had a clear, bright voice, and a clear, bright face. Her hazel eyes stared right at Lacey’s, and Lacey was distracted from those eyes only by the realization that the girl’s pile of wayward curls was pinned up by a knitting needle and a crow feather. Her lunge into the water had left her dress wet up to her thighs, and the ruffled cuffs at her elbows were dripping water. A water lily leaf was stuck to her shin, and the other shin had a vine of some sort trailing down from her knee – no, it was a tattoo, not an actual plant!

Abruptly, Lacey recalled that she was here to introduce herself, not to ogle at her new lady, and she bowed her head slightly and curtsied. “Good afternoon, my lady. My name is Lacey, and I have just come from your lady mother. I am to tell you that I shall be accompanying you as your maid during your stay in Buckkeep, if it please you, my lady.”

Lady Patience’s nose wrinkled in distaste, and she did a remarkable impression of a disgruntled noble lady for someone up to her ankles in an ornamental pool, with fish swirling around her feet in confusion. “Why, I never asked for a maid! What a silly idea, why should I need a maid? I am perfectly capable of tying my laces myself.”

Lacey dared to give her a mild look and then, slowly and deliberately, slide her gaze to the shoes discarded haphazardly on the grass near the pond. The laces were loose, and tied up in a big knot to allow her to just push her feet inside and to keep the laces from trailing on the ground and tripping her up. Lady Patience shifted from foot to foot, had the grace to look a little abashed, and shrugged.

Her hands, still cupped together before her, emitted a distressed little _ribbit_.

Lacey’s lips twitched, and she stomped her indulgent smile down with an iron will. _A little eccentric_ , Hod had said.

_“Well, I thought of you immediately when I heard it, Lacey. You said you were looking for work, and I can think of no one better to keep an eye on that summer storm of a girl than you. My lady Constance was very fond of her, you know.”_

Lady Patience made a face at her hands. “Do stay put, I’m having a conversation!” she told them crossly. Then, with a considering look at Lacey, she started wading out of the pool. “I remember now. I asked Mama for a research assistant, and she said it wasn’t proper, so I told her I needed a maid. Are you my research assistant, Lacey?”

Lacey smiled. “Why, no, my lady, as it would not be proper. I’m your maid. But I am sure you know that it is a lady’s prerogative to appoint her maid any task she deems necessary.”

The girl stopped at the edge of the pool, her small bare toes curling in the grass as she considered Lacey. She tilted her head to the side like an owling, as though she could see her better this way. “Can you read?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Write?”

“Certainly, my lady.”

“How are you with illustrations?”

“Not very good, I’m afraid, my lady.”

“Oh. Well, I like to do that myself. How about holding a frog while I draw it?”

Lacey bit her lip to keep her smile from breaking out. Lady Patience’s hands _ribbited_ again, as though the poor creature had heard them talking about it. “I could, my lady, but would it not be more pleasant to observe the frog in its natural environment? I could set us tea here, by the pond, if you wish.”

“Natural environment.” Lady Patience’s eyes became unfocused and her mouth fell open as she considered Lacey’s words. “Why – why yes, I suppose it would give us a more complete idea of how he lives… but oh, I was going to introduce him to a frog I caught yesterday, I have her in my flower vase – she is blue, you see, and I wanted to see what color their offspring would be…”

Lacey was fairly certain that any frog that Lady Patience had put in her flower vase yesterday was leaping somewhere entirely else in her rooms now, and made a note to watch where she stepped when she had a chance to see them. “Well, perhaps we could introduce them to each other in this pond, my lady? They might feel more at home in a pond than a vase.”

_“Be sure that you take my meaning, Lacey. You are the best student I have ever had, and by Eda, that girl will need the very best. She needs a protector as much as a maid. Do you know that when she was little, she once stomped her foot at King Shrewd for throwing a shadow over her playthings? She did, and shoved him, too, with all the might of a five-year-old. My Queen found her utterly charming, and I suppose I do, too, but if anyone can accidentally anger the gods by accusing them of standing in her way and mildly inconveniencing her, it is Lady Patience.”_

Lady Patience’s eyes, still far away and unfocused, were shining now. “Yes… yes, of course, who would want to live in a vase? I wouldn’t, what an utterly ridiculous notion, and what an absolute joy it must be to live in a pond – oh, I should go and get the other frog right now… ”

She was halfway to the garden path that had brought Lacey to her before Lacey got her urge to laugh under control enough that she could give a delicate little cough and say, “My lady, I would recommend shoes against the chill of the Keep’s floors.”

Patience stopped and turned, frog still in her hands (the poor creature had managed to wriggle a leg free, and the tiny webbed foot dangled from between her fingers), water lily leaf still clinging to her shin, blinking dazedly at her as if she had caught her sleepwalking. “Shoes? Yes, people like it when others wear shoes.” She nodded her sharp little chin decisively. “Shoes are proper. Please hold this.”

Lacey found a wriggling frog pushed into her hands, and clasped gentle hands loosely around the creature as Patience sat down on the grass and started to pull her shoes on, utterly oblivious to the fact that she had just made the maid who was supposed to help her with the shoes hold a frog instead.

Lacey looked down at her, her curly head bowed over her scratched knees, visible with her yellow skirts tied up around them and now bunched up in her lap as she tried to pull the leather shoes on her wet feet, and something squeezed her heart abruptly. What a charming, careless creature! A weak little _ribbit_ alerted her that she had accidentally squeezed the frog in response, and she loosened her grip on it.

Meanwhile, Lady Patience had discovered the water lily leaf stuck to her leg and was now lifting it with both hands like a fine bit of embroidery, admiring the webbing of the veins against the sun, shoes entirely forgotten. Frogs entirely forgotten, too, in just a few sentences, as she demanded that Lacey look at the delicate pattern more closely, as she suddenly realized that the pond was full of lilies, as she scrambled up and started to make a beeline for the garden path, wearing just one shoe and carrying the leaf, with the intention to go to her rooms not for a lady frog but for her tablet and inks. Lacey kneeled by the pond to release the poor little fellow in her hands to freedom and then ran after her absent-minded lady with the missing shoe.

“I let the frog go back into the pond,” she said as she kneeled before the girl (after dazing her with a question about what sort of tea she would prefer and thus making her stop for long enough) and guided her foot into the shoe. “Seeing as we were planning to observe him in his natural environment, my lady.” She stood and dusted her hands on her skirts.

“… And the pattern is really quite intricate, I shall have to do a complete mapping of it… What did you say, my dear?” Patience looked at her from the water lily leaf she was holding against the sun again. “What frog? Do come on, dear.” And she turned and wandered off into the general direction of the Keep.

_My dear_ ; accepted and loved so quickly, so easily, in the span of a single conversation. Oh, this was truly a precious, eccentric, sweet lady. Her thoughts scattered into the four winds at all times, but her heart always in the right place. Lacey smiled and privately mused that she would have to scourge the lady’s rooms for the other frog quickly, before Patience stepped on it. “Oh, nothing, my lady. Nothing so very important.”

_“My Queen was very important to me, Lacey. And little Patience was very important to her. I should like you to guard her with all your heart.”_

“With all my heart,” Lacey whispered, and then had to trot to follow Patience, who was already calling for her to take possession of the leaf, for she had found a most intriguing nest of birds in the hedgerow.


End file.
